Building A Community, With A Purpose | Sébastien Grenache

Becoming An Inspiration

Sébastien comes from a long line of entrepreneurs, and he draws most of his inspiration from his late grandfather, who had an ice cream parlor turned into a general store where his famous Grenache caramel was born in their small town of St-Damien. The food brand grew very popular and ended up being acquired by The J.M. Smucker Company. It is still widely accessible in stores around Canada and the US and remains an iconic local brand. The brand long outlasted his grandfather’s life, and Sébastien grew up with this heritage and was constantly associated with the institution his family initially built in the 50s. This heritage is driving him to follow suit and improve a consumer landscape of his own.

When Sébastien took over the company in 2020, at the very beginning of the pandemic, the initial goal was to learn everything about the business and industry as soon as humanely possible to react appropriately to these unpredictable events and find ways to reinvent their traditional revenue streams which were heavily skewed by theircafes. He started looking at channels where specialty coffee wasn’t available, such as corporate offices, hotels, restaurants, etc. The goal was to challenge the assumption that specialty coffee was exclusively for coffee geeks and make it accessible to everyone, not only with easy access but also through education and a marketing strategy that appeals to the masses. Finally, he looked at ways to diversify the business while reinforcing Cafe Saint-Henri’s position in the market, and 13 years since, he has garnered love and success. 

Sébastien took many (calculated) risks along the way. The first was to acquire a network of cafes at the beginning of a World pandemic. But what exemplifies his vision and risk appetite is the investments in infrastructure, machinery, and talent in anticipation of the volume that was to come. He acquired two highly efficient roasters and built a new production facility with a warehouse and a large reception area where theycould host competitions and events to reunite the industry. He also invested in multiple specialty coffee industry-related businesses, such as a green coffee import business, a distributor for specialty cafes, and investments and support in farms in Burundi and Colombia. He then grouped those companies in an ecosystem called Origine117, which aims to empower the industry by facilitating access to products, services, and tools otherwise unavailable for roasters orfarmers, all under one roof. ‘’We want to help roasters around Canada improve their visibility and grow better businesses, so we can propel the industry and transform the coffee market.

Building A Company with Purpose

Sébastien embarked from the beginning on the very ambitious mission to democratize specialty coffee. “Every decision we make goes in that sense, and this is what we live for at Saint-Henri: encouraging and facilitating the path for as many consumers as possible to try, adopt, and demand flavorful specialty coffee instead of turning to a commodity coffee where consumers have barely any information on what they actually end up buying’’ explains Sébastien. ‘’We are convinced that the public would prefer to drink coffee with a purpose, combined with a much better, natural taste, and that they will buy into specialty coffee’s sustainability, ethics, and quality attributes.  “When you buy specialty coffee, it allows farmers to pay their workers reasonable wages and generate enough margins to invest in their land and equipment, improving the quality of their product every year. When clients see all those moving parts and realize the impact that specialty coffee creates it makes them fall in love with the product, just like they did with craft beer and natural wine last decade. It’s a win for everyone! That said, a great deal of education must be done, and that’s where we are right now.”

Sebastien’s most significant achievement so far is definitely to have been able to open specialty coffee to the masses in Canada, both for individuals but also by being the first specialty coffee company to serve big commercial accounts such as Germain Hotels, Fairmount Hotels and Porter Airlines, who trusted him with their brand and image. The fact that every Porter’s passenger worldwide will have access to specialty coffee is incredible news for the industry, and we are one step closer to making it accessible everywhere! “What’s the most exciting about some of these projects is that we work with partners such as Porter Airlines and Germain Hotels to develop a combination of specialty coffee bean and roast that is tailored to their taste and the experience they want to provide their clients,” elucidates Sébastien. “In Porter’s case, we’ve developed a coffee that has especially been roasted for airborne consumption, as the perceptions of our tastebuds evolve when we gain altitude.”

For the days to come, Sébastien and his team are working hard to expand access to specialty coffee in grocery and specialty stores and to increase their network of cafes throughout eastern Canada. ‘’We are also really excited about our giving back program, which has been in place for 16 months now! It’s all about improving the well-being of our communities, especially the farmers and producers that we work with.’’ They also commit a share of their sales (depending on the product and time of the year) to local charities such as Montreal’s Children’s Hospital (CHU Ste-Justine Foundation) during the holiday period.

In addition to his many involvements, Sébastien and the Café Saint-Henri team are working on a number of important projects, all with the aim of democratizing specialty coffee. They have just hired the renowned international agency Sid Lee to support them in their growth.